Talibangelical Covidiot News - Death Threats for Advocating Anti-Covid Vaccine

Jamie Aten, Disaster psychologist, author and evangelical
Death threats for advocating anti-Covid vaccines.

For evangelical leader Jamie Aten, advocating for vaccines led to a death threat

An evangelical Christian who urged his fellow evangelicals to get the anti-covid vaccine says he has been getting death threats and other hate messages from his fellow evangelical Christians.

Jamie Aten is executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College and his work has generally been praised, but when he began urging his fellow evangelicals to get vaccinated, things turned ugly.

Among the emails he reported when he filed his complaint to the sheriff’s office in DuPage County, Illinois, was one telling him his work on vaccines was "punishable by death".

How's your Monday going? Mine started with having to file a police report in response to the increasing number of threats I'm getting for encouraging white evangelicals to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

— Jamie Aten (@drjamieaten) April 26, 2021

Another, received after he spoke to the New York Times about the importance of getting vaccinated, warned him that encouraging white evangelicals would "eventually lead to the murdering of all mankind". It continued with the veiled threat, "If I knew my stuff, I would know not to encourage people to get vaccinated because that’s what’s going to take down humanity more".

The importance of persuading white evangelical leaders to get a vaccine was highlighted by a recent Pew Research poll which showed that 37% of white evangelicals would not have the vaccine - one of the highest levels of vaccine scepticism for any American demographic. Given the large number of white evangelicals in the USA, this figure means it will be difficult to reach the required level for herd immunity to be effective in controlling the virus, so America will always have a high level of infections and the pandemic will last much longer and claim many more lives than it need.

Other surveys have shown that White Evangelical Christians are the least concerned about how their behaviour impacts on other people when it comes to holding super-spreader events in churches, wearing face masks and observing the social-distancing regulations, so it is hardly surprising that they are also least concerned about acting as a reservoir for the coronavirus and providing a means for new varieties to evolve, so long as they aren't slightly inconvenienced in any way.

Last year, under Trump's leadership, face-masks became a badge of tribal loyalty for Americans, like a MAGA hat. Now it seems a vaccination is also a sign of tribal loyalties.

But perhaps the most instructive thing in this story is not the stupidity of those, mostly Trumpanzee evangelical Christians, who are campaigning against the vaccines, but their quick resort to threats, like good fundamentalist Christians when people disagree with them.

Having just posted a slightly tongue-in-cheek item on Twitter about science flying a helicopter over the surface of Mars and asking what equivalent achievements religions had to matched it, I can understand how Aten feels, as I have also had veiled threats about what their imaginary friend is going to do to me if I don't agree with them and credit the work done by religious scientist to religion, not science. Apparently, they believe that science done by religious scientists is materially different to that done by non-religious scientists, so should be credited to religion, not science.

But Aten has chosen his bed-fellows himself. He might like to consider what it is about their mutual religion that can be used to excuse their selfishness and the threats of violence against anyone who dares to disagree with them. He chose to jump into bed with that particular rat pack so he shouldn't be surprised when they act entirely in character (with apologies to any rats who may have been offended by that metaphor). Laudable though his efforts are, he should be asking himself why they are evoking such a response in his co-religionists.

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Repugnican News - When the Truth Doesn't Work for You, Lie.

New York Post temporarily deletes, then edits false story that claimed Harris' book was given out in migrant 'welcome kits' - CNNPolitics

A couple of days ago the New York Post ran a story that alleged copies of VP Kamala Harris' children's book, Superheroes Are Everywhere were being included in welcome packs for immigrant children at Long Beach, California and she was therefore profiting from immigration. This would have been illegal, if true, so it was eagerly seized upon by several prominent Repuglicans and repeated on social media such as Twitter without the slightest attempt at fact-checking first. Why spoil a good scandal with truth, eh?

Religious Abuse News - 99 Years for Child-Abusing Paedophile Pastor

Jeffrey Winston Forrest, Youth Pastor
99 years for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and jumping bail

Former Abilene youth pastor sentenced to 99 years in prison | KTXS

"Religion provides excuses for people who need excuses!"

This was never truer than in the case of former Abilene youth pastor Jeffrey Forrest, sentenced to 99 years in prison for the aaggravated sexual abuse of two boys, bail jumping and failure to appear. He had fled to Mexico where he was tracked down, arrested and extradited back to Texas in May 2020.

During the trial, multiple witnesses testified that Forrest admitted to the abuse. He allegedly told a good friend and a professional counsellor.

Fundamentally Hypocritical

Dr. Robert Jeffess
"Satan targets Evangelical Leaders and makes them 'sin'."

The Christian response when a brother falls

Another noxious bubble of stinking hypocrisy just burst on the surface of that cesspit of corruption, American fundamentalist Christianity, in the form of Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist-Dallas.

In doing so, it showed how fundamentalists use religion as the source of excuses for their behaviour, so they don't need to take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences of them.

Commenting on the difficulties currently befalling Jerry Falwell Jnr and Liberty University, Jeffress blamed Satan.

Readers may recall how Jerry Falwell Jnr., head of Liberty University - a post he inherited from his dad, who founded the fundamentalist, right-wing conservative Christian Bible college - resigned abruptly when it was revealed that he and his wife Becki, had been having an unusual arrangement with a pool boy from Miami, Giancarlo Granda. The arrangement was that Becki and Giancarlo had sex while Jerry watched.

It also emerged that Falwell had decided to give public support to Donald Trump's election campaign shortly after receiving help from Trump's shady lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, in preventing Granda making the photographs of the trio's activities public. Cohen had earlier been instrumental in bribing the prostitute, Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about her activities with Donald Trump, during the 2016 election campaign - about which he later lied to Congress and for which he went to prison for election campaign expense offences in not declaring the payment as an expense by the Trump team.

Covidiot News - When a Pastor Believes He's Above the Law

Rev. James Coates
GraceLife Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Protesters rally to cause of 'jailed' Canadian church as pastor awaits trial

Rev. James Coates is a former student of Rev. John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California and, like him, believes churches and their pastors are especially priviledged and above the law of the land. To MacArthur's cheers, Coates continued to hold church services at his nondenominational church near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in contravention of the anti-coronavirus measures which limit congregations to 15% of the church's capacity and with suitable social distancing measures in place.

After months of his reckless endangerment of the health and welfare of his church members, their families and the public at large, the authorities were forced to act and jailed Coates for 35 days. Undeterred, other pastors at the church continued to hold illegal gatherings until the authorities in Edmonton closed the church, fenced it off and posted guards.

Christian Hypocrisy News - Liberty University Sues the Falwells.

Jerry Jnr and Becki Falwell
"Sexual behaviour 'damaging' to Liberty University"

Liberty University sues former President Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 million, citing conspiracy, breach of contract

Good ol' Christian hypocrisy is alive and well and living in Liberty University.

The fallout from Jerry Falwell Jnr and his wife Becki's 'arrangement' with the Miami pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, in which Becki had sex with Granda while Jerry watched, is continuing unabated.

Jerry Falwell Jnr inherited his position as Liberty University's president from his father, Jerry Snr, who founded the Christian fundamentalist 'University', but was forced to resign when news of his and Becki's sexual adventures leaked out. The 'University' is now suing him for $10 million claiming breach of contract and alleging that he conspired to mislead the board of directors by concealing details of the affair from them. The University is also alleging that Falwell “fashioned a deceitful scheme to manipulate the Executive Committee of Liberty” while negotiating his last contract.

The couple also bought a Miami beach youth hostel in 2013 and installed Granda as manager. While Becki admits her affair with Granda, who has the photographs to prove it, she denies the specific allegations and Jerry Jnr, again, despite the photographic evidence showing otherwise, continues to deny his part in the arrangement.

Religious Abuse News - The Mexican Cult With a Paedophile Leader - Allegedly

Naasón Joaquín García
Alondra Ocampo	Susanna Medina Oaxaca

Trial date set in sexual abuse case against La Luz del Mundo leader Naasón Joaquín García

On Monday, a Superior Court Judge reversed the April 8th decision of an Appeal Court that the case against alleged Paedophile, Garcia, be dropped because of procedural delays in bringing the case to court. The trial will now be held on September 27 and Garcia remains in detention in lieu of a $90 million bail.

Also to appear in court on the same day, is Susana Medina Oaxaca. The third defendant in the case, Alondra Ocampo, has pleaded guilty to four counts, include three counts of contact with a minor for a sexual offense, involving three Jane Does, and one count of forcible sexual penetration, involving a fourth Jane Doe. She is believed to have struck a deal with the prosecution, the details of which are not disclosed.

Garcia is leader of the Mexican fundamentalist Christian La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World) church and is known to the sect as "The Apostle". He faces counts of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation of a minor, human trafficking and possession of child pornography.

According to court documents, Ocampo took photos of minor girls “touching each other sexually at her direction” to send the photographs to García. Ocampo directed one of the victims, along with other minors, to perform “flirty” dances for García while wearing as little clothing as possible.

After the dance, García “gave them a speech about a king having mistresses and stated that an apostle of god can never be judged for his actions,” according to the court papers.

According to this report in the Los Angeles Times:

Evolution News - Great Tits Have Evolved Flexible Cultures

Great tits (Parus major) can change their culture to become more efficient

Great tits change their traditions for the better | University of Konstanz

How arrogant we once were, before science taught us humility!

When I was young, back in the 1950s, we assumed us humans were exceptional in so many ways that justified believing we must be a special creation with a special purpose, being blessed with so many unique abilities. Human exceptionalism justified so much about religion and our relationship with the rest of nature and the world, which we assumed had been created solely for our benefit to be used as we saw fit. There was even an account in our book of self-justificatory origin myths that related how and why everything was created this way - "And God gave Man dominion..."

But that was in the days before we knew any better. Now we know otherwise.

• We used to think we were the only 'thinking' beings, now we know that many other species can think and solve problems.
• We used to think we were the only beings with intelligence enough to make and use tools, now we know many other species also shape and use tools.
• We used to think we were the only beings with ethics and moral codes, now we know several other species are also empathetic and know the difference between right and wrong in context.
• We used to think we were the only beings with a sense of self, now we know many other species are self-aware and have a conceptual map of their environment with them at the centre of it.
• We used to think we were the only beings with cultures, now we know that other species also form cultures which they inherit from their parents and peers.

And, that latter assumption has just taken another blow with the news that a group of researchers at the University of Konstanz and Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany have found that birds are able to change their culture to become more efficient. As the University of Konstanz press release explains:

Evolution News - Turns Out Altruism Is For The Fish

Convict chichlid, Amatitlania nigrofasciata

Turns out altruism is for the fish — Osaka City University

Christian fundamentalists will confidently assure you that their religion gives them superior morals to Atheists and members of other religions because they get their morals direct from a perfect god who defines right and wrong. Almost invariably, of course, the same fundamentalists who need to boast about their supposed superior morals are using religion for the excuses it gives them for otherwise unacceptable, antisocial attitudes and behaviour like homophobia, misogyny and/or racism, but that's another issue.

One of the claims they will make against Atheists, for example, is that Atheists see no reason not to be selfish, whereas Christian fundamentalist are altruistic because they know this is the right thing to do, not because it is inherently right but because their god tells them to be and promises them a reward for altruism or punishment for selfishness.

However, evolution by natural selection, operating at the level of genes is fully capable of explaining altruism as an evolved behavioural trait because self-sacrifice can often ensure the survival of those descendants and close kin who are carrying copies of the genes for altruistic behaviour, so ensuring the survival, even at the expense of individual carriers, of those genes through time.

So, this gene-centred evolution should predict altruism in other species; species moreover which don not need to read the Bible to know right from wrong because they have an innate, inherited, set of pro-social behaviours which are also situational - the situation depending on the probability of helping the survival through time of the genes for that behaviour.

This is the finding of a group of researchers from Osaka City University, Japan, whose results were published open access in Nature Communications a few days ago. They have shown that male convict cichlid fish, Amatitlania nigrofasciata can vary their behaviour between pro-social and anti-social depending on the situation.

The Osaka City University new release explains:

Religious Abuse News - 100 Counts of Rape and Abuse in Christian Girls Home

Boyd and Stephanie Householder face more than 100 charges, including dozens relating to child neglect and abuse.

Missouri couple, who owned religious girls home, charged with over 100 counts of abuse, rape | State News | komu.com

Details are emerging of "horrific, sexual, physical, and mental abuse" of girls at a Cedar County, Missouri home for teenage girls run by Christian fundamentalists, Boyd and Stephanie Householder. The couple have been running the, now closed down, Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch boarding school for young ladies "who were destroying their lives through poor choices and behaviours", since 2006.

According to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's website:

Christian Hypocrisy News - Christian Apologist Sye ten Bruggencate Abused a Vulnerable Woman

Sye ten Buggencate,
(former) presuppositionalist apologist for Christianity

Christian Apologist Sye ten Bruggencate Took Advantage of a “Vulnerable Woman” | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Anyone who has spent much time 'debating' with fundamentalist Christian apologists in social media will be familiar with the Canadian apologist, Sye ten Bruggencate, a leading proponent of the infuriatingly intellectually dishonest and childish 'presuppositional' school of apologetics.

Well, maybe no longer (at least for a while, anyway).

Someone dobbed him in regarding his inappropriate relationship with a vulnerable women and he has announced his withdrawal from 'ministry'. In other words, he's giving up lying for Jesus and suckering people with false arguments, because he's been caught... er... lying.

The details of the woman and who exactly dobbed Buggencate in to the elders of his Faith Presbyterian Church in Tillsonburg, Ontario, are sketchy and still emerging but he announced his 'retirement' on his website with a terse:

The Fundamentalist Christian Child Pornographer and Trump Aide.

Christmas at the White House with Trump's Ad designer, child pornographer and paedophile rapist, Ruben A. Verastigui.

Former Trump and GOP Aide Ruben Verastigui Charged With Child Pornography Offenses

Of course it would be wrong to suggest that all Trump's supporters and staffers share his lack of moral scruples in sexual matters, but this one certainly did.

In fact, when he was working for the Senate Republican Conference and Christian pro-life groups, and designing social media ads for Donald Trump's Make America Great Again Committee and Donald J Trump for President, Inc., Ruben A. Verastigui was also trading in child pornography and telling his online pal and fellow paedophile:

Well like I said babies are some of my biggest turn-ons and beast. Young rape… Fuck I love all that.

According to this report in The Daily Beast:

D.C. Metropolitan Police arrested Ruben A. Verastigui on Friday after an investigation revealed he allegedly “distributed, received, and possessed images of child pornography” between March 2020 and February 2021. Jared Holt, resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, first reported Verastigui’s arrest on Twitter.

Altruism News - Covid-19 Plasma Donation is Fuelled by Kindness. No Religion Involved

Convalescent plasma is a treatment being trialled for Covid-19 and involves blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients being transfused into patients who are currently in hospital with the virus.

News - Research finds Covid plasma donation is fuelled by kindness - University of Nottingham

In a piece of research by psychologists from Nottingham University with colleagues from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and the University of Queensland Australia, has identified 6 main motivations for recovered Covid-19 patients in the UK donating blood plasma, which is being used to treat people who are currently ill with the virus.

The study involved 419 UK residents who who indicated they had been infected with Covid-19 and were eligible to donate convalescent plasma. They were asked about their awareness of convalescent plasma, motivations, and barriers to donating.

The six main motivations were:

• Altruism from adversity.
• Post-traumatic growth.
• Moral and civic duty to help research.
• Patriotism and control.
• Reluctant altruism.
• Signalling reluctant altruism.

A Victory for Human Rights as Biden Plans to Codify Roe v. Wade Into Federal Law

President Joe Biden - Promise to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law if SCOTUS rules against it.

Biden vows to ‘codify’ Roe v. Wade on anniversary of ruling - The Christian Post

The Biden/Harris administration will codify the SCOTUS ruling known as Roe v. Wade into federal law, if SCOTUS, with its new right-wing majority given it by Trump's appointees, ever reverses it.

Last Friday, on the 48th anniversary of the landmark 1973 SCOTUS ruling, President Biden said:

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe. In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack. We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care — including reproductive health care — regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.

Covidiot News - Muddled Vatican Promulgates a Lie Then Dismisses it Anyway

Pope Francis. Conversion to 'situational ethics'.

Bishops issue updated statement on COVID-19 and vaccination - Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales

The Catholic Church has succeeded in getting itself into a proper muddle over the Covid-19 vaccination.

On the one hand, it is promulgating a lie - that the vaccine is derived from the cells of aborted foetuses - and on the other hand, having raised that thought in the minds of its followers, it now says that 'fact' doesn't prohibit them from receiving the vaccine, even though previous vaccines have been prohibited on just those grounds.

Christian Credulity News - Megachurch Pastor Sentenced for Fraud

Megachurch Pastor Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, Windsor Village United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas. Sentenced to 6 years in prison for fraud.

Megachurch pastor sentenced for fraud

To a dishonest evangelical preacher there is little difference between the routine petty fraud of conning thousands of followers out of a tenth of their income on the promise that it'll earn them big rewards later (if they're faithful enough) and the fraud who cons thousands of people by selling them worthless bonds on the promise that their investment will earn them big rewards later.

Both appeal to the naked greed and avarice of the credulous fools they dupe, to whom the only hope for a better life is the expectation of undreamed of wealth for little effort.

According to this report, megachurch senior pastor, Kirbyjon Caldwell of the 14,000-member Windsor Village United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas, has been convicted and sentence in Shreveport, Louisiana to 6 years in prison plus a $125,000 fine and ordered to repay $3,588,500 in restitution to the people to whom he sold worthless Chinese bonds, having pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud last March. He had been trading on the trust his victims believed they could place in a 'Man of God'.

Argentina Decriminalises Abortion as Catholic Church Influence Wanes.

Celebration in Argentina as the Senate decriminalised abortions. Abortion had previously only been legal in cases of pregnancy due to rape or where there was a serious health risk to the mother.

Reuters

Argentina legalises abortion in landmark vote | The Independent

There was near euphoria in Argentine women's groups as, in yet another rejection if the Catholic Church and its teaching, Argentina yesterday became the first Latin American country to decriminalise abortion.

As with formerly devoutly Catholic Ireland, this is another milestone on the road to complete independence from the former dominance of the Catholic Church as secular morality develops and moves on, leaving a fossilised Church with its morality based on Medieval superstition behind. Instrumental in this reassessment and rejection of the moral leadership of the Catholic Church has, of course, been the tsunami of child sexual abuse scandals and exposure of the systematic facilitation and coverup by Catholic clerics of these abuses, often with the complicity and participation in the abuses by bishops and cardinals.

Catholic Abuse News - Letting The Predatory Priests Off

Roger Sinclair, who was removed by the Diocese of Greensburg in Pennsylvania in 2002 for allegedly abusing a teenage boy decades earlier. Now serving a prison sentence in Oregan for abusing a developmentally disabled man in 2017.

Credit: Deschutes County District Attorney's Office / via AP

Almost 1,700 priests and clergy accused of sex abuse are unsupervised

An investigation by reporters from Associated Press has discovered that almost 1700 American Catholic priests and clergy who had been named as credibly accused of sexual abuses are working unsupervised in the community, often with children.

According to this report by Claudia Lauer and Meghan Hoyer of Associated Press:

Nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church considers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living under the radar with little to no oversight from religious authorities or law enforcement, decades after the first wave of the church abuse scandal roiled U.S. dioceses, an Associated Press investigation has found. These priests, deacons, monks and lay people now teach middle-school math. They counsel survivors of sexual assault. They work as nurses and volunteer at nonprofits aimed at helping at-risk kids. They live next to playgrounds and daycare centers. They foster and care for children. And in their time since leaving the church, dozens have committed crimes, including sexual assault and possessing child pornography, the AP’s analysis found.

Catholic Corruption News - What a Carry On At The Vatican!

Cecilia Marogna / Cardinal Angelo Becciu

Woman arrested amid Vatican financial scandal claims she worked in ‘parallel diplomacy’ | News | LifeSite

The mystery over the sudden sacking by the Pope of Cardinal Angelo Bacciu, amidst rumours of financial impropriety and misuse of Vatican funds, deepened yesterday with the announcement that a close female associate of his, Cecilia Marogna, 39 had been arrested in Milan and charged with embezzlement.

Until his abrupt sacking, Bacciu had been effectively number two in the Vatican; one of the few members of the Pope's inner cabinet with direct access to him without needing to make an appointment.

Marogana had been employed by Bacciu as a “security advisor”. According to this report in the Catholic-leaning LifeSite:

Crooked Catholic News - Cardinal Becciu Resigns Amidst Financial Scandals

Cardinal Becciu, former Prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes and Chief of Staff for Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis and dodgey dealer, now stripped of his cardinals' priviledges.

Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.

Vatican cardinal linked to financial scandal resigns and loses rights.

The financial 'irregularities' that have long been a feature of Vatican life are continuing, it would seem, and have involved yet another senior cardinal who appears to have been unable to resist dipping his hand in the open, and largely unregulated coffers.

This time it is a former chief of staff under both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who has 'resigned his rights as a cardinal', a euphemism for 'been sacked from his position but allowed to retain his title in name only'.

This sacking, which was announced in a terse statement that gave no reason, yesterday evening, follows a raid on the offices of the Vatican's banking regulator as part of an ongoing investigation into the $225 million purchase of the former Harrods store site in Chelsea, London, for conversion into luxury apartments.